Group games over

2012-04-02 03:22 by ParadokS

2nd Sunday of the first Draft season concludes the group stage with another 10 games played. So far we only had 1 walkover out of 20 matches which is great news. I would say it's 1 too many but oh well. Read on to get an overview of what happened this Sunday!

2nd week of group games were really crucial for some teams, as nothing was yet decided after week 1. Group B was particular tight and could go either way.

Darkki's Bliss had to redeem themselves as well fighting against bps' Evilness to stay in the playoffs.


Group A

Practice Rounds from last week:
para: 13
milt: 5
dimm: 0
dark: 3
bps: 5

As you can see from the practice rounds we picked up from stats.quakeworld.nu, Para's Rocks have been very active. They came prepared and really wanted to end up on the first place in the group. Although this was contingent upon them being able to overcome Milton's Militia, who also managed to get a few rounds in during the week. Not a small feat, considering last week's games where Milton was dominating the field. On the first map (DM3) it was looking really tight, although Para's team had the lead throughout the match. With about a minute to go and a 20 frag lead the first map was in the sack.... OR WAS IT?? If someone could check those demos for me and tell me who did NOT slowspawn, giving Milton's team the first map win with a single frag lead, it would be much appreciated!

Having to fight Milton is tough enough, but with a 0-1 after what looked like a solid round it was getting tense. On the 2nd map (DM2) it would not be Milton who would run the show, but rather Diki putting in the work and doing what he could, to try and close this with a 2 mapper. the "pro's" were just too solid and a fairly tight but solid win for the rocks put them at odds going into a E1M2 decider.

A small 16 frag margin would decide this week's first match in another very tight round. ParadokS and Kingpin was a solid duo here, backed nicely by rkd and votary for a win.

So probably the most important game of this group today was Darkki's Bliss vs bps' Evilness. Who was most likely to end out in the cold?
Both teams managed to get a little bit of practice during the week. Although fix did not participate in Darkki's practice sessions. They had a chance to warmup even more as they had agreed to face ParadokS' Rocks at 17:00 CET to play the game they neglected last week. However they were not able to show up here either and eventually had to forfeit that game (the only WO so far in the draft).
bps also got 5 rounds played and looked determined to show that their lineup deserved a 2nd chance in the draft. Last week's games did not look good and beating Darkki this Sunday was alfa omega!

bps lead his team through a tough first map (DM2) top fragging but only wining with about 40 frags. Seeing fix on the bottom is a rare sight and Darkki's team had to work overtime trying to come back from this. Darkki took a hold of the reigns and delivered a stellar performance on the DM3 leading his team into a tie. Due or die for both teams on another E1M2 decider. As you all know that is not for the faint of heart. Both teams were fighting for their lives and it showed. Darkki pulled out a few more rabbits from his hat giving another great performance. living up to his captain status. Another really close decider game in this draft went in darkki's Bliss favor and unless bps would show a big upset in their next game against Milton's Militia, it looked like Darkki was safe for now and bps had to make miracles to stay in the game.

Sure enough, Milton's Militia went on in their next game to face bps' Evilness which looked like an easy 2-0 victory for the militia and this was the definitive end for bps and his evil satanworshippers this season.

dimman's Dimension had to face ParadokS' Rock's in their first game this evening, which turned out to be a power demonstation from a very 'rock'solid lineup (pun intended). A DM3:294-119 / DM2:295-153 was really out of the norm for the usual tight games we have seen so far. Perhaps dimman's lack of practice with his team during the week was an important factor for them in this matchup.

Dimman's 2nd game this evening was against Darkki's Bliss who came from a fresh win against bps, securing his team in the playoffs. Playing with a sense of relief against Dimman's team, who wanted to redeem themselevs after their game against ParadokS' Rocks' turned out to be another bitch slapping. This time dimman did the slapping and once again we saw fix bottom fragging on DM3. Eventhough E1M2 wasn't total domination it was clear however the whole match was controlled by Dimman's team. Unless fix finds a glimmer of his old form Darkki's Bliss will have a very hard time against Carapace's Nutcases this Thursday in the wildcard game.



Group B

Practice Rounds from last week:
murd: 7
karl: 0
cara: 7
nitr: 0
zero: 7

phrenic gave us quite the scare yesterday when he announced that nitram's HD had crashed and he himself would not be able to participate this sunday, leaving Nitram's Rams completely handicapped with both the captain and 1st. pick unable to play. I think it was a very cruel 1st. April fools joke and you should all go slap him. Cause indeed nitram showed up and gave us some great action tonight.

With 0 maps played during the week for nitram and 7 for Murdoc's Muppets, nitram's rams was under a lot of pressure. They had 2 really tight games last week winning 2-1 over carapace's nutcases and losing 1-2 to zero's heroes. Well this weeks games did not look any easier. In what people have dubbed 'the group of death' we saw murdoc picking the longest straw as they took down nitram in just 2 maps. DM3 was kind of close but murdoc just seemed to have that extra gear closing the deal. nitram really put up a great performance here but his team was lacking unity and quality. Having 0 pracs played the last 2 weeks really does make a difference. Worth mentioning as well is the absense of phrenic. nitram's first pick in the draft, which probably had an even bigger effect for nitram this cold Sunday night.

Nitram's second game was against en_karl's Snarl. The team that surprised us all last week with some great games and en_karl really showing us his (what's better than 'A-game'?) skills. But nitram is no pushover and with a solid performance from molecule, en_karl got a wake up call losing DM2 with over 120 frags. Noteworthy is that krab was unable to play tonight and the remaining of this season. This means en_karl's snarl will have to field knave in all remaining matches unless they take in a player from the free agent pool. Combined with 0 maps played during the week en_karl's team must be considered weakened for this 2nd part of group stage.

Next map was E1M2 which is usually a surprise to see in the 2nd map. Another close game where everyone had to sacrifice blood sweat and tears to survive, en_karl was happy enough taking down a 12 frag win for a tie.

A rare DM3 decider where en_karl was very strong last week was going to be an interesting matchup. This is undoubtly nitram's strongest map and many consider him a one man army here. With en_karl's team lacking krab, having to substitute with knave for this entire match spectators were in for a treat as this was going to be tight. The scores did not disappoint and a 195-184 win for en_karl's Snarl sealed the deal. In a very even match a few more quads and 3-1 pent's for en_karl most likely turned the scores his favour.

This put Nitram's Rams in the dangerzone for being eliminated before the playoffs. If zero would win his game against Carapace's Nutcases this would push nitram outside in the cold.

Lacking krab tonight was perhaps even more evident in the matchup between en_karl's snarl and carapace's nutcases. An impressive DM2:360-118 & E1M2:298-195 win for the 'crazy dudes' showed us that this pure 'SD' lineup is a strong contender in the playoffs where they are clear favourites against Darkki's Bliss.

Last game in this group would be Zero's Heroes vs carapace's Nutcases. This would turn out to be a controversial game as well, but we'll come back to that later.
With 7 maps pracced for each team during the week and zero's lineup complete with StrikeR on the field again, this was shaping up to be a very tough games for both sides. Noway to predict the outcome here. What's more fitting than a 2 frag win on DM3 in the first map? Cara's team seemed to have more red armor control and more quads, but the 3 penta's for zero managed to keep the scores very close to the very end. never the less a 1-0 map win for Carapace's nutcase.

DM2 was the choice of the heroes, and the feared DM2 duo of zero and StrikeR had to play up to their reputation to pull their team into a tie. Not less due to the fact that heroes was fielding a brand new player. pooll from Poland was chosen from the free agent pool at the expense of nepra who had not been online the last few days.

Another close map where no player really stood out from either team, zero's Hero's managed to pull a 21 frag victory, despite cara's team taking 13 out of 20 quads. 30 and 29 rls dropped respectively... must have been like playing with weaponstay :D

Heading into the decider zero was confident his team was secured the playoffs spot. Even if zero would lose this decider they would be on par with nitram's point and mapscores. And seeing zero's Heroes won over Nitram's Rams in their group game it was all good nomatter the outcome of this last map.

This decider was pretty close up untill the last 5 minutes or so when the nutcases were pulling more and more away getting a solid YA control and several nice quad runs in, winning this map 245:206 and thereby the match.

Quote from #draft.admins:



So there you have it, as the rules state it's not the internal match result between 2 teams that are equal in points, that decide who will move on, but map wins and fragscore.

To be honest we copied the rules from EQL system and I would admit this was an 'oversight' from admin's part to not correct this, as we would probably have chosen the alternative solution.

Unfortunately for zero's team such a critical rule cannot be changed after the fact. I'm sure however Nitram's Rams are praising the higher powers and doing the happydance now as they still get their day on stage Thursday when they face off against Dimman's Dimension in what is looking to be the tightest wildcard games of the 2.


Playoffs

Without further ado you can head over to the playoffs tree to see who meets who and when.
We will be in contact with all the affected teams and do what we can, to make sure all teams are showing up. If there will be any schedule changes we will post it here as soon as we have new information.

Hopefully we can scrounge up some live commentary and stream for Thursday as well covering one or both matches.
Goldrush Games will be added Monday afternoon by the all powerful goldrush-daytrader danny murdoc!

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